I've only just started the game and played through the first area with the barbarian, but I also went through the tutorial with the dwarf and I noticed that the starting location seems to be different for each character. Apart from the differences in gameplay due to the various abilities, strengths and weaknesses of the characters, are there big differences in the story and/or the level design, too? Or is it more or less the same for all, apart from the first level?

And if, for example, the barbarian visits the dwarven mines, does that mean I will essentially play the same level that the dwarf starts in or will the level design be a bit different?

I'm asking because I'm usually not fond of replaying games if that means mostly going through the same story and areas, just with a different character, so if they don't change much, I'd have to pick my preferred character very carefully, seeing that I probably won't be motivated enough for another playthrough with one of the others. Or is is more like the Dark/Light campaigns in Enclave, where a different perspective means completely new story and level designs, even when the locations are the same?

Thanks!

The starting levels are all different.

The dwarf first visits a dwarven city, that is being overrun.

If you play as the dwarf, he can choose between the paladin fortress and the dwarven mine just like the knight after the introductory level. I assume its the same for the other characters.

Only the first levels are actually different. All of the rest of the levels are the same, though you will occasionally get to choose the order. Tell Halaf and Kelbegen are #2 and #3 or vice versa depending on your choice, but the Tombs of Ephyra are always #4, and so on.

Some of the level descriptions are different depending on your class, as well. But for the most part everything is the same, you'll just choose different weapons and strategies depending on your class. All the levels except the first all have the same contents regardless of your character.

So if you say the starting levels are different, does that mean that if e.g. the barbarian visits Kelbegen as #2 or #3, it's actually a different level than the starting level of the dwarf?

Anyway, I guess I'll have to make a choice then. From what I understood from another thread, the barbarian has the hardest difficulty of the melee fighters, the knight has great combos, but the dwarf is the easiest to play, because with him you can succeed without even using the combos? I assume the adventurer is difficult to play too, due to her low base health?

So far, I haven't quite figured out the combat and how to use the combos and I tend to forget combos when things get hectic anyway. I've found the first barbarian level fun, not too difficult, but pretty challenging already. If the diffculty goes up a lot later on, I might be in trouble though, especially considering that healing resources are limited and health doesn't regenerate on its own. So it might be wiser to pick an easier character like the dwarf? (Not that I mind the challenge, but I'd hate being forced to abandon the game halfway through because my skill doesn't match the required degree or because I got myself into a tight spot.)

Btw, since the game is split in levels, does one start each new level with full health again or not? And can you carry resources like potions from one level into the next?

There are four separate "first levels." You'll only play one of them depending on your class. The knight plays Tabriz, the dwarf plays Khazel Zalam, the amazon does Marakamda, and the barbarian does Kashgar. From that point, everyone gets the option of Tell Halaf or Kelbegen, and they'll need to complete both of them before they can move on to Ephyra. You'll never play the first level of any of the other classes.

Some of the combos are great, and some of them are not so great. It really depends on how fast they are, where they strike, how much energy they cost, and how difficult they are to perform. You don't necessarily always want to be using combos because while they're awesome, they take time and use lots of energy. Against the very fast trolls with Orc Swords in the early levels, I've found many of the combos to be much too slow to hit them consistently. If you get hit in the middle of a combo, it gets interrupted but you still lose all the energy, so I'll often just use regular strikes on them. Class combos tend to be a little weaker than weapon combos, but also don't drain huge amounts of energy.

For instance, I really love the Sablazo for early levels even though it's not particularly strong and it doesn't have any special attacks, because it's VERY fast. It seems to be about 50% faster than pretty much everything else, which allows you to just hack away at people and keep them staggering from the pain. The Knight can use some of his class attacks like South Cross with it too, which is nice.

For bosses or enemies with very strong shields, though, I'll often use weapon combos just to get rid of them quickly. There's a weapon you'll get in the mid-game that has a weapon combo that drains the life from your enemies and heals you, which is incredibly useful (but it doesn't work on undead or golems or the like).

And yes, you start each level with full health and any potions left over from previous levels. You're limited to four 500 potions, two 1000 potions, one full health potion, and one power potion at one time. You're also limited to a certain number of "misc items" at once, so if you're maxed out on potions, you may need to drink one to be able to pick up a critical puzzle item.

Personally I find the knight to actually be rather tricky because his sideways dodge move only moves him about a half-step away, which often isn't enough to get him out of the way. I guess this is to encourage you to block with your shield, but shields break so easily and often that I generally prefer a dodge-based defense strategy to a block-based one. He does have a LOT of class combos, though, many of which are very useful. I do think the dwarf is probably one of the easier classes, but he generally needs to be pretty close to the enemies to hit them which can be a problem. Some of the early dwarf weapons have pretty hefty defense penalties, too, which can hurt a lot. Once you get a War Hammer, though, you're pretty much set.

Oh, okay, I guess I confused the area names. Thanks for clearing that up! So if the starting levels are all unique, it seems like a good idea for me to first play through each of them and after that decide which character I liked best and would want to continue with. It would also seem wise to save at the start of each level and keep that file (maybe make a backup as the save slots are limited, apparantly).

Btw, I noticed the game seems to judge me on account of my saving habits. I started out "awesome", now I'm already "overcautious", lol. Just out of curiosity, do you have any idea how this is measured? Is it the overall number of saves or the frequency, that is the average time between the savegames, which defines my "rank"?

It appears to be some mix of time between saves and total number of saves. It doesn't really make any difference, though, just one adjective on the loading screen, so feel free to save as often and as much as you like.

Personally, I think it's kind of neat because it encourages you to create a sort of self-imposed checkpoint system, but it doesn't actually force you to do so. I'm currently at Heroic on my furthest save, which is about 4-5 saves per level on average.